Profile: Betsy Duncan Smith

Daily Mail

Betsy Duncan Smith is, in many ways, one of the Conservative leader's biggest selling points. An elegant, attractive blonde with a weakness for pearls and few political opinions of her own, she is the perfect consort for a Tory MP.

It is Betsy, too, whose inherited wealth is largely responsible for the family's privileged lifestyle.

The Duncan Smiths live in a £2 million, 16th-century Tudor farmhouse near Milton Keynes, Buckinghamshire.

This "mini-Chequers" - set in three acres with tennis court, swimming pool and orchards - is part of the ancestral estate owned by Mr Duncan Smith's in-laws, Lord and Lady Cottesloe.

The 5th Baron Cottesloe of Swanbourne and Harwick - who moved to a smaller home nearby when he decided to give up the family pile in favour of his eldest daughter last year - is a wealthy hereditary peer and a distant relative of Princess Diana.

An Old Etonian and former naval commander, his estate includes the picture-postcard village of Swanbourne, complete with post office, village store, tearooms, prep school and houses, plus acres of prime farmland.

'Moneyed'

It is assumed that while his daughter has yet to receive much of her inheritance (her grandfather died in 1994 leaving an impressive art collection to her father but nothing to his grandchildren), Betsy is still "moneyed" in her own right.

Until February this year, the Duncan Smiths also owned a home in Fulham, South-West London, as well as a £300,000 constituency house in Chingford that was bought, without a mortgage, in 1992.

The London house was sold for £721,000, making at least £621,000 profit in the 20 years since the Duncan Smiths bought it.

Their four children are privately educated - although Mr Duncan Smith is keen to point out that his eldest son went to a state primary school and won a scholarship to Eton.

As Leader of the Opposition he earns £121,840, which includes a parliamentary salary of £56,358.

He has also earned a £2,500 advance for his first novel, a cerebral art-world thriller due to be published this autumn.

Last week's Mail on Sunday list of the richest MPs put Mr Duncan Smith at number 72, with an estimated £1.17 million fortune - more than Tony Blair. The list is compiled using the Register of Members' Interests, property ownership, shareholder registers and other business concerns.

Unemployment

Yet, compared with many two-income families (even while her husband was a backbencher, Mrs Duncan Smith worked as his diary secretary), the couple have always felt hard up.

Before entering Parliament, Mr Duncan Smith twice suffered periods of unemployment. After a distinguished Army career, he left the Scots Guards at the height of recession in 1981 and was forced to sign on the dole for several months.

He then worked at GECMarconi but decided in 1988 - at the height of the property boom - to move to housebuilders Bellwinch. His timing could not have been worse. The market crashed and Mr Duncan Smith was sacked after six months as marketing director.

The pain of his dismissal has stayed with him. He was unemployed for five months at a time when his wife was unable to work because she had just given birth to their second child.

"It was a shock - absolutely awful. I felt pathetic," he told one interviewer. "I remember telling my wife. We looked at each other and she said: 'God, what are we going to do for money?'."

Mr Duncan Smith eventually bounced back as publishing director of Jane's Information group, the defence specialists. Money was always a little thin on the ground, however.

Second-hand clothes

During the late 1990s, it has been claimed, the couple's finances were so tight that Betsy had to wear second-hand clothes and considered converting their Fulham home into a bed-and-breakfast hotel.

"Iain was forever moaning about money," said one source.

"Outwardly they never appeared to want for anything but it has actually been quite a struggle at times. Betsy is a quiet, dignified lady who has never sought the limelight but she is an absolute rock.

"Despite her privileged upbringing, she has never once wavered from her support for Iain - even when he was unemployed. She sees it as her duty to be by her husband's side, for better or worse."